Business-backed MN Forward raised eyebrows last week when it announced support for three DFL legislators. But the reliably Republican PAC isn't the only big cash player at the Capitol that is backing candidates on the other side of the aisle. The Education Minnesota teachers union's PAC, which most frequently endorses DFLers, has endorsed a handful of Republican incumbents who are facing DFL challengers in November.

As Minnesota’s Republican Party was giddily tweeting the news that the party had fielded candidates for all 201 seats in the state Legislature for the first time in 30 years, the Independence Party of Minnesota was quietly celebrating its own milestone: 16 candidates for the Legislature in 2010, seven in Senate districts and nine in House districts.